Richard Lewis is a famous American comedian and actor, whose comic talent has placed him amongst the giants of the American comedy world like David Letterman, Larry David, Ray Leno, etc. His famous nickname ‘The Prince of Pain’ is the most accurate moniker for the hair tearing and morose yet hilarious persona that he has adapted for the television. Lewis started his comic career by briefly appearing on television programmes like Saturday Night live and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson but as his talent slowly started to unfold, he started getting more and more opportunities to portray his talent on television and silver screen. He also did many movies like, ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights’, ‘Leaving Las Vegas’, ‘Once Upon a Crime’, etc. Lewis is not just an actor and comedian of exceptional talent, he is also a writer and all his life, he has contributed comic material to major magazines, including Playboy, and also released his memoir titled ‘The Other Great Depression’ in which he chronicled his lifelong struggle with drugs and alcoholism.

Lewis realized his talent for acting and knack for comedy and decided to pursue comedy professionally. This realization came to him at the time when he was successfully contributing ad copy and comedic material to other comedians.

His very first professional comic stint was with New York’s Improvisation Comedy Club in the early 1970s and by 1974 he managed to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which meant that his talent was no longer hidden.

Lewis started making regular appearances on The Sonny and Cher Show. It was around this time he earned the nickname ‘The Prince of Pain’ because of his TV guise of an angry and grumpy person.

Lewis did many little stints for shows like Saturday Night Live, made numerous television appearances and toured along with other comics on—especially the comic concert with Jamie Lee Curtis, which earned him his own cable special ‘I’m in Pain’.

He acted with Don Rickles in the short-lived TV series ‘Daddy Dearest’. He had a recurring role in ‘Rude Awakening’, as ‘Rabbi Richard Glass’ on the dramatic series ‘7th Heaven’, and appeared on the ‘Tales from the Crypt’.

Lewis did not only perform comedy routines, he also wrote hilarious and satirical comic articles for many magazines, one of which is ‘Playboy’. He was also endorsing popular brands in the 1990s, like, Boku, Snapple and Certs breath mints.

Lewis made his mark on the silver screen with brief: ‘Once Upon a Crime (1992)’, ‘Wagons East! (1994)’, ‘Leaving Las vegas (1995)’, Mel Brooks’ ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1997)’—in which he played ‘Prince John’, ‘The Wrong Guys (1998)’, etc.

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Lewis is also an author and apart from writing comic articles and columns for various American magazines, he released his own book in 2001, titled ‘The Other Great Depression’—a book about his struggle with recovering from alcoholism.

His recent cameos were in ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ along with Chris Rock and as Charlie Sheen's accountant in ‘Two and a Half Men’. He also has a recurring role in Larry David’s successful venture ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’.

He has completed filming “Squirrels To The Nuts”, a Peter Bogdanovich film due for release in 2014, starring Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots and Cybill Shepherd, among others

Although Lewis is a multi-faceted personality with a record in stage performances, TV and film acting and writing but his forte is his unique comic routines, which he incorporated in various TV series and movies.

In his memoir, ‘The Other Great Depression’ , that he promoted first on The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he has accounted his struggle with alcohol and drugs and famously said “...as full of tears and obsessions as I am, the one thing I’m most proud of is that I am no longer ruled by alcohol.”

He had a very close relationship with his comedy idol Jonathan Winters in the last ten years or so of Winters' life.

One of his famous quotes--"I go on a long tour and make people happy that they're not me and go home."

Lewis has been featured and has added to innumerable books and most recently, ‘I'm Dying Up Here’, which archives the combined coming of age of the standup comedians who defined American humor since the last three decades, like: Letterman, Leno, Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, etc. , by author William Knoedelseder.